In 2014, the only competitors going to the CrossFit Games are those who qualify at regionals—no special invitations, no past-champ rule, no wild cards.

In the Central East Region, that means only the top three go to the Games, and the region is arguably the toughest one for male athletes. Among the competitors are two past champs, several top-10 Games finishers and a whole line of tough athletes hungry for a ticket to Carson, California.

The CrossFit Journal is a chronicle of the empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed CrossFit program. Our mission is to provide a venue for contributing coaches, trainers, athletes, and researchers to ponder, study, debate, and define fitness and collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.